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Contrary to popular belief, vampires are not undead humans, but a species of giant hematophagous bats. Some basic characteristic of my vampires include:

  • They mostly consume blood, sometimes human blood, but they never (except for the vilest ones) drink all their prey's blood (they do not want to kill it);
  • They have an excellent sense of hearing, and of eyesight (at least, night vision), but a relatively poor sense of touch (they cannot sense itching), and a relatively poor sense of taste (they cannot taste sweet, and fat, they can only taste umami, sour, bitter, and salty);
  • They have raspy high-pitched voices;
  • They have elephant-level intelligence;
  • They have gorilla-level strength;
  • Are as monogamous as humans;
  • Are mesotherms (or lukewarm-blooded, if you want) like tunas, great white sharks, and sauropods;
  • Are negligibly senescent like naked-mole rats;
  • Are mostly solitary, but they sometimes form coalitions like male cheetahs;
  • Adults weigh on average the same weight as an average adult bald eagle.

Note: magic does not exist in my story.

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    $\begingroup$ The cool thing about building a fictional world is that if you want something to exist it will. I'm unclear what exactly you're asking since you seem to have already decided that these giant bat critters exist in your world. Why are you concerned about whether your giant bats could exist in your world or not? Perhaps it would be helpful if you [edited] your question to focus on the concerns you have. $\endgroup$
    – sphennings
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 1:21
  • $\begingroup$ Elephant level intelligence is very smart, or just as smart as elephants. Smart, but not as smart as humans? $\endgroup$
    – Trioxidane
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 9:03
  • $\begingroup$ And the Author said, let there be giant haematophagous bats. And there were giant haematophagous bats. And the Author saw that the giant haemotophagous bats were good. And the Author called the giant haematophagous bats vampires. And there was evening, and there was morning: the first day. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 13:13
  • $\begingroup$ It's unclear how these are vampires rather than just a specific type of bat. Are they even humanoid? $\endgroup$
    – rek
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 13:26
  • $\begingroup$ A creature that does not get itchy is at serious risk of being overwhelmed with ectoparasites - that can happen to humans that because of illness do not get itchy. For sure it would happen to these big bats. Maybe that is how you know you have been visited - all the parasites the bat shed on you. $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 16:24

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Given the size, intelligence and strength of this animal, a significant amount of blood per day would be needed to maintain its metabolism. If, on top of that, we consider the restriction of not killing the prey, the only feasible target are large animals, which can have a significant blood loss and still survive.

In this setting, the most likely prey are large herbivours. Feeding on the blood of large animals can either be done because they do not notice (through anesthetics), or because they allow it (through symbiotic relation). Consider one of this properties to make it more realistic.

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    $\begingroup$ Symbiotic relationship is a good idea. Oxpeckers are tolerated because they do good grooming even if they sometimes take some meat. Most bloodsuckers rely on stealth but your bats are pretty big for that. / $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 16:24
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That much strength in an eagle-weight body is somewhat challenging. Scale that down a bit and maybe raise the body weight to find a usable middle ground. If they hunt humans, they don't need anywhere near gorilla strength. Think small orangutan or large chimp. Plenty of raw strength to hold even the strongest human but not too much weight to get off the ground.

The other challenge is the elephant-level intelligence but nature probably wouldn't have any trouble with it. The intelligence to weight ratio of a crow is spectacularly high compared to humans or elephants, so there is a lot of room for increased efficiency.

Over all, your "vampires" don't stretch the bounds of believability. The only question remaining is what evolutionary pressures lead to their creation, but even that is pretty straight forward. Increased size, strength and intelligence are classic evolutionary responses to predation, while increased lifespan is a favored response to environmental (youth-threatening) dangers.

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Blood is not very high-density in terms of calories or nutrition. Look at real-world vampire bats. Your creatures would have to drink a huge amount of liquid, and digest and process it, to maintain a high metabolism.

If they cannot detect itching, they will die out from parasites.

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